


She Sang

by Clone



Category: Sleeping Beauty (1959)
Genre: Battle, Canonical Character Death, F/M, Forests, Singing, Unconsciousness, Will and Mental Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-16
Updated: 2013-12-16
Packaged: 2018-01-04 22:45:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1086549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Clone/pseuds/Clone
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rose finds comfort and power in her song</p>
            </blockquote>





	She Sang

**Author's Note:**

  * For [arctic_apollo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/arctic_apollo/gifts).



> Thank you so much to my beta, Tigerbright!

Rose's -- no, her name was Aurora, they had said -- _Aurora_ 's tears were tapering off, though she was sure they would return. What had started as the best birthday she had ever had had quickly dissolved into the worst; she felt as though she had done nothing _but_ cry since her Aunts gave her the news.

Of course they weren't really her Aunts now, were they. Everything she had ever believed was apparently a lie, and they expected her to just go along with these changes? Happily? Aurora began to sniffle again when she heard a strange noise.

It was almost like music, but the notes were unfamiliar. As she looked around the room, Rose saw no person or instrument it could be coming from. The music continued insistently, and Rose got the feeling that she should stand.

Once she was on her feet, she noticed a small ball of light across the room, almost like the will-o'-the-wisps that her Aunt Merryweather had shown her in the boggy part of the forest. This wisp was drifting away, and for some reason, Ros- -- _Aurora_ felt compelled to follow it.

She wasn't sure how far she walked -- it felt more like floating, actually -- but suddenly the wisp transformed into a strange contraption she had never seen before. Curious, Aurora reached for it. She thought she heard her Aunts crying out a warning, and tried to look for them, but a commanding voice said "Touch the spindle. Touch it, I say!"

Uncertainly, Aurora reached out her hand, and touched the strange object.

The next thing she knew, she was falling, falling, and then landing with a thump on the forest floor. Rose slowly sat up, feeling the ache throughout her body from the landing. She was out of her fanciful princess dress, and back to her plain old Briar Rose self.

Feeling comfortable for the first time all evening, despite her lingering pain, Rose sat up and took stock of her surroundings.

She was in the woods, and they certainly looked like the woods around her cottage, but something was off. After a moment she identified what it was; there were no animals. Ever since before she could remember, her Aunt Fauna had taught her to identify and communicate with animals, and they were everywhere in the forest.

But not this forest. Without the animals, the woods were eerily silent, and it was this silence that made Rose realize something else. There was no wind. Her Aunt Merryweather had taught her all about the seasons, and the weather, and she could tell how fast the wind was and what direction it was coming from, and what weather it indicated. But there was no wind in this forest: not even the small eddies that formed when the air above was calm. It was strange, and off-putting, and Rose did not like the feeling that this forest gave her.

Next, Rose examined the forest itself. The plants were shaped as such plants usually were, but their color was off. Everything was slightly too yellow in the light, slightly too purple in the shadows. This wasn't a proper forest at all.

Curious, and confused, Rose stood up and began to explore. This forest was completely wrong, and the further she went in it, the more uncomfortable she became. Finally, she decided to stop wandering and be sensible about things. Hiking up her skirts in a way she hadn't done in years, Rose began to climb the nearest tree.

It was hard work, as she hadn't climbed in years, and also, the tree seemed to be _resisting_. Rose couldn't quite put her finger on why, but she got the distinct impression that the tree didn't want to be climbed. The branches seemed to move away from her hand, and the bark became slippery where her feet rested.

But she persevered, and soon Rose had broken through the canopy. She looked in all directions for a landmark, but the forest continued from horizon to horizon. Now Rose knew for certain that something was wrong; she had always been able to see mountains far beyond the forest, and the distant depression that indicated the town, and the castle on the far hill. _Her_ castle, apparently. But Rose had never seen an expanse of sky and forest canopy with no breaks or landmarks, such as this. Something was definitely wrong.

Tumbling and slipping her way back down the tree's trunk, Rose arrived back at the forest floor, which somehow felt colder. Pulling her shawl tight, she began to hum to herself. She had always found singing comforting, and at the moment she could use all the comfort she could get.

To her great surprise, her voice had an effect. It was subtle, at first, but then Rose noticed that the trees around her were shaking, ever so slightly, the way the grass vibrated when she blew on it. Unsure what this new development meant, but feeling better, Rose continued.

As her humming progressed to singing, the vibrations increased. 

Soon the entire forest was rattling, still eerily quiet. However, instead of feeling more uncomfortable, Rose felt emboldened by this effect. Maybe if she sang hard enough she could shake off this world and get back to a normal forest.

Standing up, Rose drew in her breath and sang as loudly as she could. Her voice echoed in her ears louder than it ever had before, and reverberated through the strange forest. As she sang, she pictured the boy she had met today: the boy she was never supposed to see again. And she pictured her Aunts, though they weren't anymore, but she couldn't think of them as anything else.

As she pictured them, suddenly they appeared in her mind's eye, the boy and her Aunts, running together. Then he was upon his horse, and her Aunts were casting spells.

Aurora sang, hoping that wherever they were they could hear her. She sang as though her voice could bridge the gap between their worlds and have him gallop to her side. She sang as though her voice could shake down these trees that trapped her and break through whatever spell was holding her.

Distantly, she heard crashing in the forest, as though many trees were falling over. Was she doing it? Was she tearing down this unnatural forest with her tune? In her vision, her Aunts yelled "Phillip!" and her beloved boy raised his shield just in time. Was this the Phillip that she was betrothed to? Could fate really have led her to fall in love with the one she was destined to wed?

Her hope renewed, Rose sang even more strongly, louder and more powerfully than she ever had before. The crashing of falling trees grew closer and more plentiful, and Phillip burst through a wall of thorny branches. Her Aunts helped with their magic, bobbing along behind him, and Rose -- no, _Aurora_ sang her heart out.

The crashing became a constant background tempo to her melody, and as Phillip burst through the last of the thorns she wanted to cheer. Instead, she sang.

Her breath was almost taken away as the dragon appeared, towering over Phillip. Instead, she sang.

Phillip fought bravely with his sword, and Aurora sang with all of her might. Finally, the last of the unnatural trees came crashing down around her, missing Aurora by inches. She barely noticed, so absorbed was she in her song, and the battle, and the struggle that she could feel she was _winning_.

The sword flew true, and the dragon screamed as it crashed down the mountainside. Aurora finished her song, knowing somehow that her time was over. She sank down to the ground, drained by the powerful currents that had just flowed through her. Looking around, Aurora found herself in a clear, sunny, glade, where small green saplings were just beginning to push through the soil.

Somewhere in the distance, a bird called.

Aurora smiled through a jaw cracking yawn. This was as it should be; this was a real forest. She wanted to explore it, to find the singing bird, but she was so tired. Sinking down against a fallen log, she struggled to keep her eyes open. Maybe she would rest for a moment, just until Phillip found her. Just... for a mo... ment…


End file.
